Stacking the NFL draft’s top cornerbacks: How they shut down wideouts

Bill Connelly is a staff writer for ESPN.com.

The two cornerback spots on the NFL’s first-team All-Pro list in 2022 went to rookie Sauce Gardner and second-year player Pat Surtain II, who scalded the league by allowing a combined 79 catches for 870 yards, five touchdowns and four picks in 1,069 coverage snaps. They are both recent top-10 picks, the receivers they covered were rarely targeted, they gave up almost no big plays and they are each just 22 years old.

Both Surtain and Gardner have lived up to all possible hype, and while other first-round corners haven’t been that successful, they’re good more often than not. In a recent piece, Bill Barnwell noted that defensive backs in general have the best first-round hit rate — 68% of first-round corners or safeties had their fifth-year options picked up, highest of any position group.

In ways both big and small, young cornerbacks are making an impact in the NFL. That will likely be the case again in 2023; as with receivers, if you believe the mock drafts, there might be only one cornerback picked in the top 10 this year, but we could still see six or seven (and, in one case, a slot corner) go in the first round. If recent history is any indication, they will all face — and most will meet — immediate expectations. Let’s get to know them.

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